The Republican Shutdown
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Republicans have a majority in the Senate, but not the supermajority required by the bizarre filibuster convention. The filibuster makes no sense. Someone mumbles a few words or submits a slip of paper, and presto! Sixty votes necessary for passage.
At one time, a filibuster required effort and inconvenience on the part of those invoking something more than a majority vote, but those days are long gone. It is the too-easy filibuster that is responsible for the immensely bundled one-bill-must-pass situation of Congress today.
That Republican majority is all that is needed to change the rules so that a Republican majority could pass the budget or a continuing resolution or whatever garbage it is they’re proposing that has resulted in the shutdown. I can’t keep track; the entire fiscal year 2024-2025 has gone without a budget, just continuing resolutions. Congratulations, Republicans!
So why are Republicans now insisting that Democrats vote with them? Probably a combination of things, mainly that they want to say that it’s a bipartisan budget (I guess it must be the budget they’re voting on?) that is screwing you and, for only one feature, making it impossible for you to afford health insurance so that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk get a few more tax benefits. Either of them could probably fund free health care for the nation and still be the richest men in the world. It would be nice for the Republican image if Democrats would vote for Benefits for Bezos.
There’s also a bizarre (weird?) Republican need to have their policies endorsed by their enemies. We see it in Bari Weiss’s career, in Chris Rufo’s career, in Joni Ernst’s smarmy reminder that we all die. Please, Democrats, LOVE US!
It’s time to end that codependence. The Republican budget is designed to hurt the majority of Americans. It’s a Republican budget, and they could pass it without Democrats. Simple majority to end the filibuster, simple majority to pass. If it’s such a great budget, shut up and do it!
[I know I am not addressing the many-shelled arguments about whom the filibuster hurts and not. They are all nonsense. A democracy saves supermajority requirements for extraordinary circumstances.]